Ghostwing
by Book-Grubbz
Summary: Shade takes a trip up north out of curiosity, and gets sucked into a different place, different time,and a differend adventure in the time Nocturna was still alive. Can Shade stop Zotz from killing her, and can he even get home?
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Shade felt himself expand with joy when he saw Marina with Griffin, talking and enfolding each other in their wings. Shade streamed toward them and embraced them both, flowing through Marina and Griffin, his mate and his son, and being closer to them then they could possibly comprehend. He felt all the things in their hearts and became a part of them, and so the homecoming was his as well.

"Marina, Griffin, I missed you both" Shade said, but of course, they could not hear him.

"Oh, Shade, why did you have to go and get yourself killed? I know I should have gone with you. All the times you were ever on an adventure, you would of died without me, but this time I did not go with you, and…and…" Marina wept.

"But Marina, I am here with you, I am here now, no need to worry" Shade whispered in her ear, but, of course, she could not hear him. Shade longed to be there alive with Marina, to talk to her and tell her everything was ok, but she would not be crying if he were still alive. Alive. Over the months, even after Shade followed his son on his first migration, that word echoed in the back of Shade's mind, like an old but forever lasting echo in the echo chamber. One dusk, about a half a year after he died in the underworld, Shade saw something spectacular. It was like nothing he had ever seen; Shade had ventured farther up north to see what it was like, and saw some kind of colorful glow on the horizon. Curious, Shade flew farther ahead. Strong winds that would of buffeted him in life blew carelessly pass him. Shade then felt something he had not felt in a long time, pain! Shade burst out laughing giddily. Pain was good; it was a trait of someone alive. Shade looked down and saw a body, a misty body, but a body; his body. Shade looked ahead again and saw some kind of stone producing all the colorful lights in the sky. Shade scanned it more closely; having echo vision, finally, and saw it had some kind of markings on it. It had pictures of some small cat like creatures chasing something else; bats, and if he was not mistaken, bats with fur on their wings and longer than usual hair. Shade was overwhelmed by a sudden urge to fly closer.

"No" thought Shade "It probably is not a safe idea to get any closer", but he wanted to see it just a little bit closer…when Shade tried flying away from it, it just pulled him closer and closer… then darkness, Shade panicked, he had been pulled into the stone. Shade then screamed, an array of lights had just blasted on and it burned his eyes to look at them, but the problem was that they were coming from all directions. Shade covered his eyes with his wing, but it did no good. Shade looked at his wing and saw it was clear, and becoming translucent just like Zephyr's wings, but more. Shade screamed again when a volley of sound deafened him and made his echo vision no use, then silence. Shade then saw the light had died down and he was in some kind of forest. He saw Marina up in a branch overhead, and he tried flapping to her, but he could not move his wings, he was too weak. Shade had use of his ears now and heard birds chirping and some kind of voices whispering in the bushes. Shade took one last look around before he crumpled to the ground with weakness and rested, not knowing if he would ever want to wake up.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Shade felt a wave of nausea and pain spread throughout him when he tried to sit up.

"Where am I?" He moaned. Shade blasted out his echo vision and saw a bunch of bats staring at him.

"Well, bird boy finally wakes," said a furry black bat.

"Yea, did you see him trying to flap?" one that was smaller than the rest snickered.

"Here, do you want a drink?" one asked soothingly. She gave him a leaf with water in it and set it by him. As he started to drink it felt good and refreshing.

"That makes me feel better, thanks, but my wings still ache a bit," Shade said while slowly testing his wings to make sure they would move. Everyone started laughing, even the girl that had been kind enough to give him some water was giggling.

"You mean sails, not wings," the largest one pointed out.

"No, I mean wings, what are sails anyways?" Shade replied. Everyone started laughing again, just harder.

"I guess he really is a bird after all," the black one laughed.

"You must be mistaken, because they are called sails," the one that pointed it out before said while holding out his sail. Shade then saw with a jolt that his wing was completely covered in fur. Shade then had a memory flash that almost knocked him down. The lights, the stone, the darkness, then the light and sound…

"Where is Marina?" he asked.

"Who are you talking about?" the small one asked

"Well, when we saw you, other chiropters took her too, but to another hollow." The tall one asked.

"By the way, I am Scruff, and this is Den" the small one said while pointing to the tall one. "And that is Sander over there" he added in pointing to the black bat. "Den is kind of like our leader in this group, but the leader of our colony is Auster, just in case you don't know" Scruff went on.

"Who was that other bat?" Shade asked.

"Bat? What is a bat? Oh you mean Sylph? I guess that is who you are talking about, but I have no idea what a bat is" Sander replied. Shade panicked, these were not even bats? He needed answers and the only one who had been kind to him was this Sylph girl, so he was going to get his answers from her.

"Can I go speak with her?" Shade asked.

"I guess, but I think she is just a little surprised that you have sails like her little brother" Den said.

"Who is her brother?"

"Oh, just this one chiropter that goes and visits others with furless sails" Den said

"I think I know where the term bat was used before!" Sander said, finally speaking up.

"Where?" Shade asked.

"Her brother used it to describe him and the other furless sail chiropters," Sander said.

"Who is her brother?" Shade asked again. One simple word,

"Dusk"


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Dusk. Shade had to remember that name if he was to ever find a way home, and hopefully an explanation.

"I think she would be up in her favorite branch at a time like this" Den said. "The problem though is that it is quite a climb up from here, even if you are good at climbing"

"Climb? I was going to fly up there, much easier than climbing, why would you prefer climbing anyways?" Shade said. Everyone gasped.

"I thought Dusk was the only one"

"There were more?"

"How come we never heard about more like him?"

"Furless wings" They had started talking all at once and almost completely ignoring Shade.

"Well, bye" Shade said as he climbed out of the hollow and flapped towards the hollow the others had said Marina was in. They stared in awe as they saw him fly like they had never seen anyone do since Dusk left. Shade nearly ran into Marina as she was leaving the hollow she was in.

"Shade!" Marina screamed. She roosted, blinked a few times and said his name again in a more questioning voice, as if she was testing if he was real or not.

"Marina, I finally can talk to you, do you have any idea what is going on?" Shade asked. Marina stared at him for a moment; mouth-hanging open, then hugged him tighter than any normal bat could possibly do.

"SHADE! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN… GRIFFIN SAID YOU DIED!" Marina screamed at him, obviously mad at him for making her so worried, but still in relief that he was there with her.

"I missed you too, everything is going to be okay" Shade whispered in her ear while enfolding her in his wings The one difference between this time and when he was dead, was she could hear him.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

"Shade, how, did…"

"It is okay, I will tell you everything, but one question, how did you get here?" Shade asked.

"Long story, but I bet you have a longer one" Marina said.

"No doubt" Shade told Marina about how in fact how he did die, and Marina started crying about how he was there the whole time and she did not even know. Shade told her how he had been caught in the lights and somehow ended up here. "How did you get here?" Shade asked Marina once he had told her what had happened.

"I was just flying around, hunting, and there was some colorful lights in the sky. I flew a little higher and I could not fly away. For a moment I felt… I don't know, Energized. There was also a bright glow coming from all the animals and plants below me. It temporarily blinded me, but when I got my vision back, I saw I had this" Marina said and showed Shade her wing. It was clear and translucent, just like he had, Shade realized with a start. Both Marina and Shade's wings looked like Zephyr's wings, just they were glowing slightly. What do you think it means?" Marina asked.

"I have no idea," Shade said. "But I know we need to get to this bat called Dusk, I think these bats around here…err, are actually not bats, but something called chiropters"

"Run! Soricid attack!" A chiropter shouted while gliding down through the forest.

"A what?" Shade and Marina said at the same time, blushing once they did.

"Climb! Now!" one chiropter shouted at them as he climbed for safety. Dozens of chiropters were filing out of the hollows and warning others, and climbing higher as they did. Shade started to worry.

"What are they?" Shade screamed at the nearest chiropter. But he did not have to wait long to get his answer. Millions of small mole like creatures with sharp red teeth stampeded out of the bushes and crowded around a small chiropter that had fallen. Shade watched in horror as they all bit the chiropter and he stopped moving. Shade could tell he was alive, and was only paralyzed, but still…

"Hey you two, stop staring down there like idiots, the soricids can climb you know" one chiropter said over his back as he was climbing. Shade regarded him, for he was focused on what was below. He watched in extreme terror as the soricids tore every last piece of flesh from his bones, then left the bones in the clearing to rot.

"Shade!" it was Marina, "Behind you!" but Shade had no time to look behind him before he was being dragged of by one of the soricids.

"Marina, help!" cried Shade, but she had been bitten too and was being carried by a soricid in the same direction he was. Shade then got an idea. Shade closed his eyes and thought of the scariest thing imaginable, and let out an echo blast into the forest right before he was completely paralyzed. Out of nowhere a large winged lizard like thing blasted out into the clearing, scaring off the soricids that surrounded Shade and Marina. It bit and clawed at the soricids, but never touched them.

"Winged Saurian!" some chiropters screamed from the trees. There was suddenly a bunch of terrified screams from the trees, chiropters started lifting from the trees and gliding away from the saurian. Shade opened his eyes and the saurian disappeared. Many chiropters gasped and gave puzzled looks down to the area the saurian was just in.

"What did you do Shade?" Marina asked him. Of course, she knew it was him.

"Echo projection, never fails"


End file.
